Amorim, the world’s largest producer, supplier, and distributor of cork stoppers has diversified to develop materials for use in architecture and fashion. In addition, the company has developed a polymer additive using leftovers from the manufacture of wine stoppers. Cork can be used to offset up to 70% synthetic polymer content in some consumer product applications. The cork-based material can be compounded with PP, PE, rPE, rPP, PLA, and bio-HDPE, with bio-based polymers resulting in a 100% biodegradable material. All these cork polymer compounds can be used as drop-in replacements for traditional virgin fossil plastics as they are compatible with injection molding, blow molding and thermoforming using standard equipment. Amorim provides recommendations on processing parameters, which can include reduced temperature, low packing pressure and reduced injection speed depending on the type of polymer and size of the product potentially offering cost savings.
Among the first products made using this polymer, the Jack and Jenny storage system designed by Puzz’le in Switzerland, was awarded an iF Design Award in March this year in recognition of its use of 100% biodegradable materials. Using FSC timber and a polymer made from potato starch mixed with low-density cork granules and 100% natural dyes, the product can be composted (at an industrial facility) at the end of its life. Other potential uses of the polymer could take advantage of the natural resilience of cork, making it ideal for applications where shock and/or sound absorption is required.
Cork forests are natural CO2 absorbers, and retain up to 14 million tons of CO2 every year. This is an exciting development with drop-in polymers preferred by injection moulding operators as they reduce the start-up costs associated with experimenting with new materials.